Have state pesticide laws become too stringent? Do you think these laws will be rolled back a bit?

State pesticide license rules faulted (http://nhbr.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071011/NEWS06/71010040) - Itís tough for a landscaper to get a license to spray garden-variety pesticides on your lawn in New Hampshire, and thatís why at least some landscapers want to make it easier.

New Hampshire requires combination of stringent education and experience requirements, as well as passing a test. Rich Kahn, the owner of Kahn Landscaping LLC in Wilton, says that he has been landscaping for at least six years and has a bachelorĎs degree in engineering and a masterís in education, but ďall that doesnít count. Iím still not allowed to buy the Turf Builder at Home Depot and use it to get rid of your crabgrass.Ē

Kahn experience doesnít count because he hasnít been working in New Hampshire for five years under someone who already holds a supervisory license and his degrees are not among those listed in the regulation, like entomology or plant pathology. Thus he couldnít even sit for the exam.

It didnít make sense, he said, for him to give up his business and work for someone else for five years, just so he could spray Roundup around his customerís bushes.

Kahn is not just a landscaper. He has run for governor and Congress as a Libertarian.

pmblair

10-11-2007, 03:07 PM

I agree. I think the laws are a bit too tough... I mean, I can understand wanting to be careful and all, but come on... You have to spend more money on study materials, tests and exams, and licenses before you can spray some RoundUp? PUH-lease! .....but I guess if ya gotta, ya gotta... I wanna make all the cash I can, so I'm going to GOPHER IT!

S.P.Martin Lawn Care

10-12-2007, 08:28 AM

It makes little sense to me that a contractor needs a license to spray a pesticide or put down fertilizer while a homeowner can do the same thing with the same materials w/o one.

If you are doing crop dusting or other similar mass applications, I can see having one. But for home owner size applications, its overkill.

Making it difficult to obtain the license drives the price of applications up due to lack of competition. Then you have the less scrupulous types move in causing more issues.

I would be willing to bet the licensing requirement in NH is the result of a regulation that is addressed time to time by the head of whatever agency has oversight, not an elected person that has to answer to the voters.

Whenever government make it easy to comply, you have high rates of compliance. Too many bureaucracies just don't get it.

pmblair

10-12-2007, 02:44 PM

Oh it's not just NH.... I'm in GA.... same laws...

tjgray

11-02-2007, 02:20 PM

I don't mind so much about how tough they are, I think they should be, but I wished that they were more consistant.

The way they are set up now is different in every state, which I think is crazy.

I also wish that if they are going to have rules and regulations that there was more enforcement...

There are so many out there applying chemicals illegally it makes it really tough for the ones who do comply.

Looking Good Lawn service

11-02-2007, 04:38 PM

What if you just put it on your customers lawns, and just do it, no one will know. Uncle Sam is not going to be on your customers private property, the only one who can squel on you is your customer, and they wont because now they wont have your service,lol... See, just service your customers, if anything happens the homeowner can vouch that they did it.

pmblair

11-03-2007, 12:39 AM

Quote[/b] (Looking Good Lawn service @ Nov. 02 2007,11:38)]What if you just put it on your customers lawns, and just do it, no one will know. *Uncle Sam is not going to be on your customers private property, the only one who can squel on you is your customer, and they wont because now they wont have your service,lol... See, just service your customers, if anything happens the homeowner can vouch that they did it.
Oh man... wrong wrong wrong!

First, illegal is illegal. *If you get your customers involved in your illegalities, that's just poor business. *Plus, if you DID do that, and your customer got tired of you for some reason, who's to say they WOULDN'T turn you in?

On top of that, people who "just do it" without being properly licensed are most likely skating by and taking jobs from the people who actually played by the rules... and, well, that just makes me mad to even THINK about. *I'm not licensed to do chemical applications yet, so I don't offer it. *I WILL be licensed by spring, though... so I can get going then... in the meantime, I will just do what I can without the license... BY THE RULES!

Sorry... but SOMEONE had to say it.

Looking Good Lawn service

11-06-2007, 09:39 PM

you are right, but the same people who make the rules, are the same ones who break them. At least in my area. every state is different, and has different regs and so is every town in those same states. I know people who work for the big lawn fertilizer "gods" who "play" by the rules and run over lawns with empty baskets, do jobs on the side of their company, steal clients, sell fuel to other landscapers and fertilizer too, truegre** ring a bell, scot** ring a bell. This is the concret jungle and like 50 cent said " I get money!!" period. thats it, dont go home and tell your kids there is no food on the table because of that reason. every one starts somewhere, and like team gopher says, gopher it. If you dont someone else will.

11-15-2007, 10:28 PM

Lucky for me I live in NH. Corn gluten meal, milky spore, nematodes are even considered products that fall under the pesticide license in NH because anything that repels, mitigates or kill a pest weed or otherwise needs a license. I called the NH dept of agriculture pesticide licensing board. I asked if i would need a license if i found a new hypothetical solution to killing ants mixing peanut butter, chocholate and mustard together? Her answer was anything that kills, mitigates, or repels! I told her they were nuts, she said thats the law.
Nh you have to have an applicator license under someones supervisor level license for 4 years to qualify to take the supervisory level in that catagory,turf, tree/ornamental, biting insects, right of way (round up apps) are other catagoreys, so if you only were a lawn applicator for 10 years you couldnt touch trees. Another way around the license requirement is to hire on a supervisory level (it doesnt say he has to be full time), you take the applicator license and have him on the books for the 4 years you might hand out a carrot ( 5 percent of equity or a cash bonus) in the company for staying for the full 4 years. My advise if you live in a state that you can get a license easily get it.

pmblair

11-15-2007, 10:48 PM

Quote[/b] (Looking Good Lawn service @ Nov. 06 2007,5:39)]you are right, but the same people who make the rules, are the same ones who break them. *At least in my area. *every state is different, and has different regs and so is every town in those same states. *I know people who work for the big lawn fertilizer "gods" who "play" by the rules and run over lawns with empty baskets, do jobs on the side of their company, steal clients, sell fuel to other landscapers and fertilizer too, truegre** ring a bell, scot** ring a bell. *This is the concret jungle and like 50 cent said " I get money!!" period. thats it, dont go home and tell your kids there is no food on the table because of that reason. *every one starts somewhere, and like team gopher says, gopher it. *If you dont someone else will.
I've been really thinking about this post and what my true feelings are about it...

I agree 100% that you HAVE to make money... and LCOs are a dime a dozen! HOWEVER.... I would rather go home broke and honest than paid and a thief... It's no better than walking into that person's house, taking THEIR food, and bringing it home... I will NOT do it. My kids will eat... if I have to go without because I was an honest business man... then so be it.